This invention relates to lug nut covers and particularly to covers particularly valuable for securing an ornamental wheel cover to the vehicle wheel.
Lug nut covers are generally chrome plated, enclosed, tubular metal caps that provide an ornamental cover the wheel lug and its lug nut. While most popular as an ornamental cover, they also protect the threads of the stud or lug bolt from damage, dirt and rust. One difficulty, however, is that they are difficult to secure to the vehicle lug nut and are often lost. One solution is, of course, to combine the lug nut and ornamental cover by replacing the conventional lug nut with a special ornamental lug nut with a closed end or, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,775,272, by welding a decorative hex shaped cap to a lug nut. Closed end ornamental lug nuts and even key-locked lug nuts are presently available but such special lug nuts are costly, heavy, and their use may invalidate a warranty or raise questions of insurability by possibly failing to meet the torsion or strength specifications prescribed for the wheel nuts supplied by the manufacturer.
Vehicle wheel covers are ornamental discs for covering the hub and wheel mounting hardware and, on automobiles, are usually mounted by resiliently locking into a wheel rim. On heavier vehicles such as trucks and recreation vehicles having dual rear wheels, the wheel shape makes rim mounting very difficult and the larger wheel covers are often attached by use of special clips that engage the "hand holds" in the wheel, or by securing the wheel cover under the lug nuts, a dangerous practice that could jeopardize an operation or warranty as previously explained.
The vehicle lug nut cover to be described not only provides an ornamental cover and protection for the lug nut and exposed stud or lug bolt but also provides a locking mechanism for securing an ornamental wheel cover.
Briefly described, the vehicle lug nut cover includes a metal cover with a first closed end and an outwardly flared second end which captures a circular clip having a plurality of inward facing tabs which, when forced over a lug nut, lock against the surface of the nut. The wheel cover has mounting holes aligned with the pattern of the wheel studs, each with a diameter larger than the lug nut, but smaller than the diameter of the flared second end of the lug nut cover. Thus, when the covered lug nuts are applied, the flared portions of the nut cover will secure the wheel cover tightly against the wheel.